


I've seen those eyes before

by undisguised



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:29:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26129578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/undisguised/pseuds/undisguised
Summary: He had a feeling he had met her before—she probably was one of the fighters that tried to stop him from burning down their village.Looking back, he guessed that had been terrible from his part.“You know, I could take off your mask and get this over with or you could answer my question,” she first said in annoyance due to his refusal to comply. Then, because she was enjoying torturing him, she added with amusement, “It’s your choice.”//Or, the blue spirit gets caught by a Kyoshi warrior.
Relationships: Mai/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 78





	I've seen those eyes before

**Author's Note:**

> Set at the end of season two. I don't remember exactly what happened so the timeline might make sense or not.

One-minute Zuko was climbing up the scaly walls of the palace, the next he was being pinned to the nearest tree in the backyard.

It happened all so fast he was too distracted to block the darts. Idiot! How had he been so careless. He tried to Free himself from the small knives but they were ingrained deep in the trunk, holding his weight surprisingly well. These weren’t any kind of knives; they were reserved only for professionals. 

A shadow crept in and his heart beat faster. He began fiddling in place, trying to get rid of the knives. He knew his last option left was freeing himself.

“Relax, I'm not going to turn you in.”

The raspy voice made him freeze in place. It was a girl. 

She stepped out from the shadows, getting nearer. The city lights behind him illuminated her painted face. 

She was pretty... and also a liar. 

She was one of those Kyoshi warriors that came to visit the king. Of course she’s turning him in!

She’s probably here to help the Avatar. If his brief chaotic passing at Kyoshi island taught him something was that the Avatar had made some allies while he definitely made enemies. 

However, the Blue Spirit did not, and  luckily, he had been more his alter-ego lately than dishonored Prince Zuko.

He saw no use in fighting anymore and tried to center his breathing. Maybe he could turn the situation around to his benefit. 

“How can I be sure you’re being honest?” He inquired, deepening his voice to mask his original tone. He hoped she couldn’t notice how nervous he was.

“Kyoshi warriors never lie,” she replied. 

He didn’t reply because he got caught up with the mocking tone in which she said that; he didn’t know how the earth kingdom citizens behaved but he was sure that in the fire nation mocking your own order is dignified with getting your tongue cut. 

She misinterpreted his silence towards her joke as defiance so she reordered her stance with a sigh. “Listen. If I wanted  to, I could have killed you already, or at the very least, called the guards so they could toss you in a tiny cell. I’m bored and I figured that sticking criminals in trees was more exciting than taking off this make up that took me too long to apply.” 

She made a great case but Zuko wasn’t going to let his guard down. It’s only time before she’d change her mind and wanted to figure out who was behind the mask. 

“I thought Kyoshi warriors only used fans,” he said, although he really was asking because he wasn’t sure. 

The girl raised an eyebrow. “I’m supposed to be the one asking questions. What’s your name?”

Zuko grimaced inside his mask. What was her deal? If she didn’t want to turn him in then why didn’t she let him go? “Maybe you’re bored because your idea of fun is interrogating me,” He stated bluntly.

She furrowed her brow and got closer to him. She smelled really nice; her scent reminded him of summers in the fire nation. The shadow disappeared behind her and now he could see her features clearly. She wasn’t just pretty... she was beautiful. So much, he kind of regretted being mean to her.

He had a feeling he had met her before—she probably was one of the fighters that tried to stop him from burning down their village. 

Looking back, he guessed that had been  terrible from his part. 

“You know, I could take off your mask and get this over with or you could answer my question,” she first said in annoyance due to his refusal to comply. Then, because she was enjoying torturing him, she added with amusement, “ I t’s your choice. ”

Her hand grabbed the top of his mask, ready to take it off his face with no hesitation. 

“It’s... Lee.”

The girl stepped back and crossed her arms. “Nice try, you really expect me to believe that you’re called just like everyone in this forsaken town.”

Zuko had gotten so into character as Lee these past few months that he forgot for a second that it wasn’t true. He was offended she didn’t believe him. “Hey! I’m from the lower ring! In my block alone there are like 5 Lee’s!”

She tilted her head to the side. “The lower ring?”

Crap. He had given her too much information. Why couldn’t he keep his big mouth shut! 

“You’re poor,” She stated in a way that made it seem like she has never interacted with a poor person in her life and he was an experiment. 

“Er- Yes, you could say so.” Indeed, it was complicated to describe. Was he temporarily poor as the banished prince of the fire nation? Was he a full-time poor now that he was an outlaw unwanted back home? 

Money and luxury didn’t matter to him anymore. He used to wake up every morning and gotten pampered by people he didn’t bother to learn their names. This past year had been a learning experience as he came to the realization of what it was like to deal with the outside world on his own. He guessed his past prejudice was justified due to his royal status; but hers was strange.

He knew her village was populated by working class folks and that his visit had led to some internal damage to their current economic situation. Her reaction had been unexpected for someone who lived in said  conditions. Her behavior had him suspecting whether she was indeed a Kyoshi warrior, because the knives and her apathic vibe didn’t fit with his impression of one. 

Plus, he still couldn’t quite grasp where he knew her from. 

“Why did you try to break into the palace?” She begun twirling a knife in her hand. She was probably doing it out of habit but it made her look extremely intimidating... and kind of attractive, in a way that made him question his own sanity. 

The truth was that he broke in because he heard the rumor that the Avatar was here under the protection of the earth king. He didn’t have a plan because he knew the chances he could capture him with all that security monitoring the place were practically zero. 

He actually came in with hopes of coming up with a plan. 

Since he couldn’t actually tell her the truth, he decided to bluff and expect she bought it. “The government was supposed to help us with food but the boxes never arrived. We figured they kept them to themselves like they usually do.”

The girl squinted. “And you expected to take them all by yourself?”

“Well. No. I was trying to figure out where they were so I could come up with a plan before you pinned me into this tree.”

The girl smirked at herself, proud of her skills. “You should be glad I did because those boxes are stored at the other end of the palace. I could take you there if you want.”

She was willing to help him? An alleged criminal? She really must be bored. “Uh... thanks but I guess being caught got me thinking I should figure something out before coming back again.”

“Yeah, you should.”

The incoming silence got him thinking he could figure out what she was here for. However, his lack of social and manipulation skills got him blurting out, “What about you?”

“What about me?” She questioned, unsure of where he was going.

“Uh, well, I heard that your village got burned down a few months ago.”

He waited in silence for her answer but she just stood there blinking. 

“So... how’s that going?” He asked, trying to fill the void. This girl was weird and it intrigued him some way, somehow, much more than any of the other girls he has met. 

Well, not everyone, he guessed Azula’s friends Mai took the number one spot, even if the last time he saw her he still hadn’t hit puberty. He thought about her from time to time because she had been the closest thing to a relationship he has ever had. A part of him still wanted to see her again even if it was most likely she outgrew her shyness and was probably dating some general’s son now. 

The girl shrugged. “I don’t know, I wasn’t there when it happened. We were doing other missions around the earth kingdom.”

Hm... so he didn’t meet her there. Maybe he had been confused but he still couldn’t shake the feeling of familiarity. 

“But you didn’t return to help? I’ve heard the banished prince burned the place pretty badly.” It felt strange talking about himself as an outsider, especially knowing damn well what  happened . 

She frowned at him, for the first time showing something other than indifference. “What exactly did you hear? Maybe breaking into the palace didn’t get you locked up but spreading false rumors might.”

Zuko gulped. “I swear I'm not spreading anything! A while back someone told me that the banished prince burned down the entire village in search for the Avatar that was hiding there.”

The girl crossed her arms and glared. “Yeah, well, that’s not true.”

“It isn’t?” He asked, clearly confused. He had been there and he recalled perfectly what happened. Even if now he wished it hadn’t occurred.

“That’s not what I was told. And I’m sure the prince isn’t capable of doing that.” Upon realizing how defensive she sounded, she added, “because it’s stupid.”

Why was she defending him? Did they really know each other then? He tried to fill in the blanks but he was coming in short. The confusion was making him feel frustrated because there she was, a beautiful, dangerous girl, that happened to be the only person that currently didn’t want to execute him (yet) and he didn’t know where to place her. Was she an enemy? Was she an ally? Did she figure out already who he was?

He opened his mouth to ask more questions but the sound of a grand  number of footsteps echoed through the halls of the courtyard. 

The girl widened her eyes and quickly pulled the knives out of the trunk. “You need to leave before they find you.”

Zuko stood there in shock, not feeling ready to leave without an answer. 

“Why aren’t you moving?” She exclaimed in a whisper as the guards got closer.

“I need to know your name.”

“What? Are you insane?”

“I’m not moving until I find out!” 

The girl remained indifferent as expected. With a long dragged out sigh, she caved in, “Fine, it’s Iam.”

“Iam?” He repeated. 

“Yes, now go!” She pushed him and he finally reacted. 

He was already climbing down the wall when the guards approached Iam. He heard them prying from afar. 

_ “We’re looking for a possible intruder? Have you seen him?” _

_ “I was here practicing when I saw someone run the other way...” _

Zuko let out a sigh of relief when he listened to the footsteps die out in the background. 

As he made his way back to the lower ring, he couldn’t help but keep thinking about Iam. He thought he had known her but he had been wrong. Still, maybe after all of this was  trough, he could try to find her once again. 

There had to be a reason as to why their encounter had been so special. It couldn’t end like this. He won’t let it. 

* * *

After what happened with the Avatar and his uncle, the furthest thing from his mind had been the  intriguing Kyoshi warrior named Iam. 

However, now as Azula’s friend stepped in late to diner he had been forcefully reminded of her. 

Mostly because Iam, the  beautiful indifferent knife thrower, had an eerie similarity with Mai, another beautiful indifferent knife thrower.

Had he really been that stupid that he hadn’t been able to connect the dots? The signs had all been there! Her amazing precision with her weapons, her disdain for the earth kingdom, her ignorance on what happened at the village and how she had defended him to total stranger. 

And Iam? He thought her parents must have hated her for giving her such an awful name but now he realized it was her own name spelled backwards. 

The girls bowed to him and apologized for their tardiness. Apparently, Ty Lee had found a shop that sold all that mystical stuff she liked and accidently got high on some herbs that she was warned she shouldn’t smell. Ty Lee clearly hadn’t changed that much since he last saw her. 

But Mai... Well, he was still processing everything. 

She sat quietly at the table and rarely intervened to throw some snide remark that he laughed way too loudly at. Azula spent the entire evening telling the story of how they infiltrated Ba Sing Se, which explained all too well why she had been posing as a Kyoshi warrior that day. 

Shortly after finishing his meal he excused himself and went to his room, the one he was currently staying at in the palace. 

His room was too green for his liking but the real issue had been that he was having trouble sleeping. Partly, it had been from the perfect quality of his linens; he had become accustomed to sleeping in hard surfaces and now his body was having trouble getting used to his old lifestyle. Mostly, it had been because his mind was filled with thoughts of his betrayal and the Avatar’s ‘dead but most likely not dead’ body. 

He spent a few hours ruminating but ultimately decided to step out of bed and explore the palace.

A striking idea came to him and decided to go the backyard where he found Iam—err, Mai, and recreate the scene in his head. That was probably healthier than what he was already doing.

To his surprise, when he arrived Mai was there practicing on the same trunk she held him captive on a few nights back. 

Had she been waiting for the blue spirit? He had to admit, he was a bit jealous of himself. He quickly brushed it off by rationalizing that he was the blue spirit so if she liked him that way then she will probably like him now, hopefully.

“Prince Zuko.” She bowed upon his presence. He still had a hard time adapting to his current status. From traitor to prince in less than 24 hours, it was a lot to take in. 

“Mai...” Her name rolled of the tip of his tongue smoothly. He held his hand up to stop her. “It’s okay, you don’t have to do that, we’ve known each other a long time now.”

He wonders if she can recognize his voice, he hoped that he had done a good job masquerading it. 

“I can leave if you want some privacy,” she suggested. 

“No!” He exclaimed. “I can leave if  _ you _ want some privacy.”

Not only did he not want to be alone with his thoughts, he really wanted to hang out with Mai now that he found her awake.

“I guess we can make each other company then.” She smiled, looking like the same shy little girl he had a crush on all these years. Now that it was reignited, he guessed that it probably never went away. It had been dormant and now it was finally wide awake. 

Zuko had planned out multiple scenarios in his head about how their first encounter would be but he guessed it wasn’t worth mentioning because his expectations had been totally blown up with the reality of the situation. If he was being completely honest, a part of him had expected her to pretty much spit on his face and reject him for how hideous he looked. As a child she looked average to him, just like a kid should look like; time had definitely been on her side, and in comparison, he looked like a monster next to her. 

“Are you okay?” She asked concerned. 

He realized that he had been moping and that it was pretty obvious. He quickly regained his posture. Maybe he couldn’t deal with his own life right now but he had to at least have a conversation with Mai without looking like an idiot. He had to stop thinking so low of himself, there’s a reason why she was still here. “Uh, yes. Just a little distracted.”

She nodded and stood there in silence, unsure of what to do. Zuko took that as his cue to start inquiring about her life. He had been intimidated of approaching her once again, mostly because their encounter—that seemed like she had no idea about— had shown him that she could be pretty dangerous; even if he liked that, it didn’t mean she wouldn’t eat his heart out if he misbehaved. 

However, tonight she was acting different. It seemed like the roles were reversed this time. Zuko wasn’t being a threat so Mai wasn’t acting defensive like she did with the blue spirit. She had been more withdrawn but she began opening up more once Zuko fell on his ass when he missed the bench they were going to sit on. 

Mai giggled behind her mouth and he blushed; partly from embarrassment, partly because he enjoyed seeing her laugh even if it was at his own expense. 

Time flew by as the conversation got stronger. She told him all about how after he left their parents made her move from colony to colony until they finally ended up in  Omashu . She hated the city because it was too dull, but luckily Azula came to her rescue before she died of boredom. She wasn’t fond of getting involved in political conflict but she had nothing else to do other than take care of Tom-Tom and she had proven to be terrible at it, so she acquiesced. Although it wasn’t like she had a choice. 

“I guess a part of me also wanted to run into you,” She said non- chalantly . 

That caught Zuko off-guard and he stammered before getting his point across. “I would have visited you in  Omashu if I had known you were there.”

She raised an eyebrow, slightly entertained by how flustered he was. “How? The citizens would have definitely hung you in the square if they knew you were there. They hate the fire nation so much that two of my father’s food tasters have died from  poisoning already.”

He thought about revealing to her his secret identity in hopes of bringing them even closer, but as much as he wanted to, he knew it wasn’t a good idea to expose his last secret weapon. “I would have figured something out, I always do.”

She had smiled at him and he figured that this was the perfect moment to lean in for a kiss. 

But as much as he was dying to, he couldn’t bring himself to do it, there were other things he had to take care of first. It would be disrespectful to his uncle for Zuko to be playing romance when it was his fault he was locked up in a cell. And it would be disrespectful to Mai to kiss her when it was most likely he wasn’t coming back to the fire nation. He had restored his honor in his family´s eyes but he felt anything less than honorable at the moment, he couldn’t drag her into his mess.

Instead he began talking about his time away. He was careful to leave out the parts that would make her hate him for being such a terrible person. It felt good to talk about somebody else other than his uncle for a change. 

“Ugh, I've met the avatar’s friends and they’re annoying.”

That’s strong coming from someone that’s friends with Ty Lee. She’s right though, when he first had met them, he had found them extremely obnoxious. He still did, but now he could say he respected them even if they probably despised him. 

Why did he care if they despised him? He shouldn’t!

Zuko asked Mai if she could show him some tricks. She had been reluctant at first but ultimately gave in. 

“How accurate is your precision?”

“Oh, pretty accurate.”. 

“Let’s see.” He grabbed a dried leaf from the ground and held it up. “Stay here.”

He walked up to the furthest tree he could find and stretched out his arm with the leaf. 

“Please don’t chop off my ar-”

He hadn’t been able to finish his sentence before the blade pierced the center of the leaf. Perfect shot worthy of a perfect aim. “Wow,” he muttered to himself. 

“That was easy,” Mai bragged. 

Easy? It was the middle of the night! He wondered what difficult meant to her.

“How did you do that?” Zuko asked loudly from his spot. He was incredibly impressed and it showed.

“I’ll teach you,” Mai approached him with a newfound sense of confidence. She knew she was good; she wasn’t going to deny it. She handed him over a knife from up her sleeve. “Show me how you do it. Try to hit that tree.” 

Zuko didn’t hesitate and threw it with all his force. The knife pierced deeply trough the upper part of the tree. He smirked at himself, that was good

“Not bad,” she said, not really impressed.

Zuko’s smugness drained from his face. “Not bad?”

“Yeah, not bad,” She repeated as she approached the trunk. She used more force than usual to pull the knife out of the tree. “It cut deep, that’s a sign of  strength . But everything else... well, you’re lucky I'm here to teach you.”

Maybe in the past he would have berated her from being wrong, in his eyes he had been great. But he trusted her judgement and it turned out the he had been  average at best. According to her, he was using his arm when he should have been using his wrist, and his aim has been way off because normally people tended to hit the center, which hadn’t been his case. 

He tried to follow his instructions once again and had found that this time the knives flew over the tree. He groaned in frustration. “Give me another one,” he commanded. 

“That was the last one.” She lifted up her sleeves to confirm. 

“Oh.” Maybe he had gotten a little carried away. “I’ll go look for them.”

Mai waved at him, dismissing him. “Don’t worry, usually the servants pick  them up and bring them to me in the morning.”

She yawned and quickly put a hand over her mouth. “Sorry.”

Zuko told her not to worry. He hadn’t noticed but time flew by really quickly and she looked tired. He offered to walk her to her chambers and she reluctantly accepted, not wanting to waste his time. He insisted because if anything he wanted to spend more time with her rather than going back to feeling sorry for himself.

Her guest room was close to the backyard, just at the end by the end of the left hall. They walked together in  comfortable silence.

She hesitantly broke the silence. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” He encouraged despite suddenly getting really nervous. 

“it’s a weird question, though.” 

“Go ahead.” He felt like he was about to self-combust because the possibilities alerted that it wasn’t a lighthearted question for bonding.

“Fine.” She halted when she found her door. “Look, I don’t want to be like Ty Lee but I've heard a rumor...”

Uh oh.

“Is it true that you burned down Kyoshi island?” 

Zuko widened his eyes. He had been right by worrying because it was a terrible question for him. This was all his fault: 1) because he did burn down an entire village, 2) because he had been an idiot and basically exposed his worst side to her. 

Mai figured it all out by the look in his eyes. “I won’t judge,” she reassured him.

Zuko scratched the back of his neck. “Yes, I did.” He sighed and got closer to her. “But I regret it! And I would never do it again! At the time I was—”

“It’s okay, Zuko, you don’t need to explain.” She laid a hand on his shoulder and instinctively he put his hand on top, it was very soft. “I’m sure you had your reasons. I understand.”

They stood there, looking at each other's eyes. For the first time in a long time Zuko felt like somebody other than his uncle was there for him unconditionally. He didn’t deserve her; he didn’t deserve anything good that was coming. He was supposed to be happy because for once things had fallen into his favor, but there he was, unable to kiss the girl he desperately wanted to kiss. 

It didn’t matter how much he tried, he still made a fool of himself. 

Mai leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek, pulling him back into the present. “Good night, Zuko.” 

She softly let go of his hand and entered her chambers, not before smiling at him. 

Zuko was left speechless in front of her door. He brought his hand to his face, caressing the spot underneath his scar where her lips had touched. 

He stupidly thought that becoming acquainted with Mai would clear his head, but instead he was more confused than before. 

The only thing he knew for sure was that she was special to him and that he had a hard decision to make. 

**Author's Note:**

> I know some of you might be like "Oh why didn't he recognize her earlier" well... i don't even recognize my own friends when we bump into each other sometimes so don't blame him, he's trying. 
> 
> Also, I think we should give some credit to Zuko's asshole side from time to time and I definitely think Mai has never interacted with a poor person before, let's be honest.


End file.
